Socially Mundane

It’s a new year. And every new year I rehash this theme I originally wrote on back in 2006. It’s accurate, effective and true. Apparently Linden Lab thinks so as I have discovered they link to the original in the Second Life Support wiki.

Either way, I like to review and refresh the article to bring it up to date and the theme still applies.

Second Life users: if you ever need creator support you’d do very well to read and understand. Second Life creators: you’d do very well to accomplish the same. It’s just good for business.

Oh, and this “best practices” applies in real life, too.

So, without further ado, let’s get started, shall we?

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Six years on the Second Life grid and I can count failed “customer support” from in-world creators on one hand. And in those cases, it always was a case of “AWOL” where no response to my inquiry was ever received. Of course, I’ve dealt with my share of rude, crude creators, just as a creator I’ve dealt with rude, crude customers. However, as a rule of thumb, I’ve always received excellent support from practically any creator when I needed it. I am willing to share my simple recipe for success in the scenario of needing or giving creator support. When I say creator support, I am referring to those times when there is a need to contact the creator of something purchased in-world or through the Second Life Marketplace.

These scenarios include, but obviously are not limited to:

• Failed deliveries on purchases (rare on today’s grid, kudos Linden Lab)
• Wrong permissions from those advertised (more frequent than appears)
• Missing portions of a “package” (rare, but happens)
• Something does not operate as expected (also rare, but more frequent than it should be)
• Something becomes broken (too common - usually due to creator paranoia)
• Something becomes lost (rarely ever Linden Lab’s fault, this is a user issue)

Creators, a special note to you: When someone is asking you for support, remember it is a 99.9% chance they are not trying to rip-you off. Whatever it is you sell in Second Life, except for the initial work in creation, it costs you nothing to throw it around for free. So why not just replace it? Stop being so paranoid and avoid the stress and drama. Would you rather take a 0.1% chance of foiling a would-be “thief” and a 99.9% chance of creating really bad word-of-mouth about you over what amounts to a real life dollar?

It costs you nothing: so just throw a new copy of the product at them and create smiles and be done with it.

My personal policy is: replacement with a smile and no questions. Thus the “transaction” lasts less than a minute and I have an extremely happy customer and the awesome word-of-mouth that goes with it. No stress.

This also is why I always sell my product as modify, copy, no transfer.

There are ridiculously few reasons to sell your items as no-modify, no-copy. You aren’t preventing theft in any way, shape or form. It is literally impossible. What you are doing is irritating the hell out of your honest, money-spending customers, especially with no-mod prims filled with crap “resizer” scripts. You are the problem to grid lag, not the solution to copybot-prevention. Please: get a clue.

And please, never sell “modify” with “no-copy” perms. It’s downright stupid.

To make the most money in Second Life “business”: always sell your creations as modify, copy, no transfer. It’s easy to just throw a new one when support is requested, “alts” will have to buy again, and gifting is a non-starter issue.

Oh, and you creators who advertise something as “modify”, but the prims are no-modify and you are referring to resize scripts: you are false-advertising and should be Abuse Reported. If the prims are “no-modify” then you’d better advertise your product as “no-modify”. If you use scripts then say so.

Customer Support Best Practices.

When you find yourself in that position of needing some creator support, prepare your case before you make contact with the creator. When you make a purchase, if something doesn’t seem right and the vendor is spewing out weird statements in open chat: copy that chat and put it into a notecard. You are doing the creator a huge favor. They may not even be aware their vendor is on the blink and needs a hard reset. The same with Marketplace non-deliveries - even though your money is refunded, do the creator a favor. I’ve personally thanked people for their good will in this by giving them the product they were trying to buy, at no charge on confirmation of the difficulty.

Check that the money you spent was actually deducted from your account. Note: this could take up to a few minutes if there are grid issues: You buy, money is taken… nothing delivered… money returned after three minutes or so (at worst). Though this is pretty rare. Note: Marketplace refunds can take several hours - be patient. However, if your Marketplace delivery does not arrive within five minutes, do the creator a favor: notify them.

If the money was not refunded and you can confirm this, go straight to your account page on the Second Life web site and copy the entire line of the transaction history. Paste that into a notecard. Important: Rename the notecard and be absolutely sure to include your full SL account name (not your Display Name) in the notecard name with a summary of the problem. For example: “Failed delivery-Satesman Resident”. Then inside the notecard, put your account name and your current display name at the top. Put all other content below your name inside the notecard.

I cannot count how many times I have received a notecard asking for support, and there is no name in the notecard whatsoever – inside or out. Or just a first name or display name (which is changeable, remember?) I know, you might argue “but the chat system says who gave it to you”. True, but if I have a butt-load of messages when I come in-world, I refuse to sift through all those messages in chat history to discover who sent what. Make it easy for me.

If you want me to be in a good mood when I try to support you, make it easy as possible to contact you. Don’t make me jump through hoops. It is simply imperative you rename your notecard as suggested.

Frankly if I receive another notecard called “new note” I will instantly hit the “delete” button before opening it. I refuse to accept notecards where the person sending it is too darned lazy to at least rename it.

IMPORTANT: Never send notecards to creators unless they specifically say to do so, either though chat or in their profile. This notecard is a “back-up” for yourself at this point.

Open the creator’s profile and before you do anything, read it. If the main profile does not say anything of substance pertaining to their business or your product, then go straight to the PICKS area and look for a tab called “Support” or something along those lines.

Do not just start sending IMs and dropping notecards willy-nilly. It’s rude and could piss-off that creator to where they just ignore you. Besides this, if IMs become capped, they won’t get your IM or your notecard. When IMs become capped, anything dropped to that person while offline goes into a black-hole (they will not see any notification about it). It is best to read the profile to discover if there are any particular instructions of how to get the fastest service needed.

And be patient.

Depending on any particular “support” instructions, always IM the creator first, before dropping anything to them. And in the case of a “broken” item, never, ever drop that to them (for the reasons I just mentioned above about capped IMs among many other reasons).

In your IM, be polite. Be nice. Try to indicate that you are not taking things too seriously and that you understand the problem is more likely a simple SL glitch than anything else.

In your IM, paste a copy of your transaction history if you can (you have that already, right?) Show the creator you are making a good faith effort here. And don’t IM saying “Are you there?” or “I have a problem.” Rather, write it all out before you press the return button the first time.

Do not drop the notecard to them (unless their profile specifies to do so) – repeat: the notecard is simply a back-up record for yourself. As often as creators ask you to drop notecards, just as many (myself included) hate notecards. We’ll ask for one if it is wanted. I just don’t like inventory notecard pollution.

In most cases, a creator will immediately take care of you if you:

1. are polite
2. say what the problem is in detail (what is happening, not what is “not happening”)
3. include your transaction report, the creator will likely ask for it anyway
4. if you broke it, or accidentally declined delivery – be honest and say so.
5. also polite
6. be nice
7. be courteous
8. be polite again
9. And along with all of the above: be really nice and polite.

In the case where someone accidentally screws up (breaks something, declines delivery, etc.) and they admit it outright, I will replace their item without question when they show me their transaction report (or show me a rezzed copy in-world). I appreciate honesty. And in that case, because they are honest in what for some could be an embarrassment, I often go the extra mile to assure them that mistakes happen and I understand that.

Summary:

The main points are this: send an IM – don’t just start dropping items (object or notecards) into their profile (it is incredibly rude to those who don’t explicitly ask you to do so in their profiles), read the creator’s profile in full and understand it before anything else, be polite as you can and always give them what they might ask for anyway: your transaction report and a complete description of your problem. When something is broken, don’t try to explain what it doesn’t do. Rather try to explain what is does do. This actually is more helpful.

And finally, in the case of a product that appears broken, wrong permissions, or otherwise isn’t “right”… RTFM (Read The Freaking Manual) – read every notecard you have received with the product. Look for your answers there first. If you IM a creator with a perceived problem where the answers to your difficulty are in the documentation that came with it, all you will do is irritate the creator and make yourself look the impatient fool. When looking for support, that’s the last thing you want to do.

Here’s a clue: the customer is not king.

The customer is simply a business associate and nothing more.
(This also is true with regard to your relationship with Linden Lab)

The creator (or Linden Lab and it’s employees for that matter) do not deserve to be abused or spoken down to. If you are “pissed” because of some difficulty you are having: shut up and keep it to yourself. Expressing that to the creator, no matter how polite you might be just causes them to put their guard up. It changes the mood and dynamic of the discussion against your favor. It’s “too much information” that is irrelevant to them. Besides, if you are “pissed” then you are taking things in Second Life way too seriously for your own good. Lighten up and give yourself a reality check. Try to have fun in-world, leave real life pressures in real life.

So here’s your bulleted check-list of commandments, obey it for good customer service:

1. Gather all the information on what is wrong before contacting the creator
2. Double-check there is not some glitch  or misunderstanding on your-end
3. Prepare a full statement in detail describing the problem before contacting
4. Look for contact instructions (profile for in-world creators, web site for RL)
5. Follow instructions properly (do not drop notecards unless asked to for example)
6. Be nice, be polite, be respectful, and most of all: be patient.
7. Most importantly: do not take things too seriously

And there, dear reader, is my secret recipe for consistent, always friendly customer support from Second Life creators and also in the real world - and yes: even from Linden Lab! (I know: ZOMG -> SHOCK!!!)